North Carolina Joins Texas and Ohio in the Race for the Most Horrible Anti-Abortion Law

North Carolina Joins Texas and Ohio in the Race for the Most Horrible Anti-Abortion Law

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, then mayor of Charlotte, yuks it up with Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr.

Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

Anti-choicers struggle to pass heavy restrictions on abortion access in specific abortion bills, so this is shaping up to be the summer of sneaking them in through the back door. In Texas, lawmakers have so far called two special sessions to try to pass a bill that would ban most clinics in the state, and in Ohio the restrictions were tacked onto a budget bill. Next up, North Carolina, where on Tuesday anti-choicers snuck a massive number of abortion regulations—roughly the same kinds currently being debated in Texas—onto another bill at the last minute. The anti-abortion measures, which at their heart are an attempt by the religious right to impose their faith-based views on the rest of us, were added to a bill that was originally meant to fight the nonexistent threat of Sharia law in the state.

Yes, in one fell swoop, Christian fundamentalists are trying to impose their faith on the rest of the state while protecting North Carolinians from having the Muslim faith imposed on them. Oh, if only North Carolina Republicans could understand irony.

The state Senate voted Tuesday night on a measure that would add restrictions on abortions, forcing clinics to meet expensive license requirements and making it difficult for doctors to perform the procedures.

Under the bill, abortion clinics would have to meet standards for licensure similar to those of ambulatory surgical centers. According to legislative staff, only one clinic in the state currently meets that standard. The bill would also require doctors to be present when women take a drug that induces abortions.

The Senate approved the measure with a preliminary vote of 27-14. A vote expected Wednesday would send the bill to the House.

Sen. Warren Daniel, a Morganton Republican, said the changes are required for women’s safety.

If Gov. Pat McCrory signs this bill, we can expect a bunch of other Republican-led states to follow in North Carolina's footsteps. Anti-choice legislators tend to copycat one another, after all. So expect a slew of bills banning imaginary threats that no one wants to be caught voting against that just happen to have amendments restricting reproductive rights. A bill banning subliminal Satanic messages in rock songs that also just happens to require women to get a note from their husbands to use the pill? Legislation to fight the impending vampire invasion that coincidentally only allows abortions for women who were raped-raped, not just "raped"? Bills that require jail time for cats that suck the breath from babies and also require condoms to be put on 12-foot shelves in drugstores? The paranoid possibilities are limitless. Unfortunately, no Republicans want to be for baby-breath-sucking cats. They are all definitely, definitely against that.